“In this kind of situation where we play Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday, we try to put the players at the limit because we never know whether another player will ask to be substituted. If we change all the players, we can do nothing.”

The Portuguese chief expects Tom Lees (knee) and Gary Hooper (quad) to be “okay in a few days”. The duo sat-out the Blackburn fixture but are edging nearer to first-team returns. Hooper was poised to take part in training yesterday.